The war will soon begin. LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) have been on the market for sometime. LCD is currently used in all kinds of applications/products ranging from digital watches to flat-screen televisions. LCD today seems to reign supreme as the general purpose display technology. But imagine having a high-definition TV that is 80 inches wide and less than a quarter-inch thick, consumes less power than most TVs on the market today and can be rolled up when you’re not using it.

How about a display monitor built into your clothing? These devices may be possible in the near future with the help of a technology called organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).  OLEDs are solid-state devices composed of thin films of organic molecules that create light with the application of electricity. OLEDs can provide brighter, crisper displays on electronic devices and use less power than conventional light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or liquid crystal displays (LCDs) used today. (source: electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled1.htm)

Sony, Samsung, Kyocera have already started using them in their MP3 players and mobile phones. Shown above is a 2.5-inch prototype display from Sony which is just .3-mm thick, and its flexible full-color display has a resolution of 169×120.

Industry analysts feel that the iphone from Apple could benefit from this display in the later versions to gain more battery. But what’s the catch? OLED at the moment costs 1.8times more than the LCD. Hence making it difficult to be widely used in cellphones, PCs and flat-screen TV’s untill the prices comes down. Hmm, What’s next? Watch this space for more updates.

(Source: T3.UK, How stuff works, NanoMarkets)

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